Fidel Castro Speech to ASTA, October 19, 1959

Please note that this speech was given in English originally, as he explains. This translation was made back from the Spanish translation. I’ve found no transcript of the English original. Fidel has mentioned this speech elsewhere also as having been given in English. The Spanish was taken from the Cuban government website.

Please note: “ASTA” refers to the American Society of Travel Agents.

English

Español

SPEECH GIVEN BY COMMANDER FIDEL CASTRO RUZ, PRIME MINISTER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT, AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE 29th “ASTA” CONVENTION HELD IN THE BLANQUITA THEATER ON OCTOBER 19, 1959.

(SHORTHAND VERSION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER)

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann, January 2010.

Ladies and gentlemen:

In line with my age-old difficulty, when I took the floor I was not sure whether I was going to speak in English or Spanish, but in the end I decided to do it in English because I want to make myself properly understood.

Well, here I am giving a speech, and you will probably go through the same thing I went through during this meeting as we listened to the speakers. However, I hope you will be able to understand my English (APPLAUSE).

I don’t have much to tell you; actually, it’s not the Government who should speak in these cases: what you get to see is what matters, and not what you have read or heard about the people. Whatever I say here in that respect is hardly important. What the people might say is what counts. Whatever you can see by yourselves through the eyes of the Cuban people is the most important thing. I just want to say that we in Cuba are very happy and grateful to you for honoring us all with your presence in this Congress and your visit to Cuba, because that’s what it is: a great honor as well as a great help for us (APPLAUSE).

As has become customary, tourism has increased very much in the places where you have held your regular meetings. The figures speak for themselves, proving that it is so everywhere you go.

Now you, the leaders of this organization, will understand the benefits of your visit, because the most prestigious travel agencies in the world are represented in ASTA (APPLAUSE) and our traditionally noble and hospitable people thank you for your visit. That’s why all Cubans have long been looking forward to having you here; that’s why our workers finished the airport for you, working night and day in nine- and ten-hour-long shifts, and many other works were finished as well in a few days (APPLAUSE). That’s why you will be warmly welcomed and treated in every hotel, every street, every taxi, and everywhere you go in Cuba.

We are quite confident of the way our people behave because we know them very well and have absolute faith in them. Cuba’s impression on you won’t come from my speech or my words. I could say many things here, but I’m sure that you will be very impressed with our people.

We don’t care much for political propaganda; we want you to believe in facts, not words. I know the world is not perfect; I know that people throughout history have dealt with all sorts of difficulties, but history has made it plain that these difficulties are not important, because mankind has solved many problems along the way, and people all over the world will keep on making progress in the future to overcome their difficulties.

It’s impossible to speak about ourselves, so I honestly insist here that we have no interest whatsoever in any kind of propaganda and ask you to please put all your political ideas aside. You and your friends are professionals, not politicians, and your mission is to help your friends find the happiness our world may provide.

We don’t have many things; we are not an industrialized country and lack a number of things, but in the field of tourism we have many advantages, like our sea, bays, beaches, all kinds of medicinal waters, mountains, game and fishing preserves, and the best temperature in the world.

Maybe we don’t have the great beauty of the snow, but we have summertime and sunshine the whole year long (APPLAUSE).

You and your friends need to have sunshine in the winter, and of that we have as much as you want, and we have as much blue sky as you want, as well as beaches with sands of every color and a gentle cool breeze in the summer. I don’t mean to boast when I say that we may not have many things but we do have many good things for tourists, in addition to our people, which is more important than all that natural beauty (APPLAUSE).

We have no doubt as to what tourists will find here. We expect many things from our people, although not everyone has the same cultural level because Cuba never had enough schools to teach the whole people to read and write. Now we will have as many schools as we need. Still, the Cubans are a noble and hospitable people, and what’s more important, they don’t hate anyone. Our people love all visitors and make them feel at home (APPLAUSE).

What you see now and what you will see in two, three or five years is beyond comparison because our best things are still in the planning stage, but they will soon become a reality. From this premise we are determined to develop tourism as much as possible, with a good service and, especially, fair prices, because rather than having 100,000 people paying for expensive hotel rooms and items we would like many hundreds of thousands to come, not only the wealthy but also those who are not rich and those who have no other fortune than their job (APPLAUSE).

Pricing is important because we don’t want to exploit tourists at all (APPLAUSE). Unfortunately, the tourists in Cuba, like elsewhere, used to be exploited.

We don’t have everything tourism needs, but I can tell you that we’re discovering and developing everything we do have so that next time you come –since you’re busy these days but we hope you will come again on vacation, because you also need to take a vacation some time (LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)– you will be surprised to see how much progress we will have made.

This is the most important message we wanted to send you, and not one of my words was intended to impress you. Instead, we want you to be impressed by what you see across Cuba.

You and your friends and whoever you ever recommend to come will be welcomed with open arms everywhere you go in Cuba (APPLAUSE), because our ambition, which is a well-intended ambition, is to turn our Island into the best vacation resort and the most important destination worldwide.

That ambition is what encourages our people to pursue such goals, and we’re sure and convinced that we will succeed despite any difficulty or adverse propaganda, because you cannot full all of the people all the time, like Lincoln said.

We’re aware of the fact that many U.S. citizens come here with wrong ideas and then they find exactly the opposite of what they believed. That’s why we think that regardless of all the propaganda against Cuba we will make headway and have more tourists every year. Who is telling the truth, those who lie or those who open the doors of the nation for everyone to come and see for themselves what is truly going on in Cuba and what the Cuban government is honestly doing and sacrificing for the happiness of the Cuban people? (APPLAUSE)

Working for the people is all we do, and we’re sure that we will count on the understanding of all kind-hearted women and men of the world. So let me finish by wishing you the best of stays in Cuba (APPLAUSE).

NOTE:This says he spoke in English, but what we have here is a translation from the Spanish. I assume it was translated to Spanish and kept in that form when it was posted to the Internet many years ago. Since Cuba’s tourism industry is a subject of some controversy abroad, I thought readers here would find this document of considerable interest, all the more so as it’s more than fifty years old.

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